My opinion of NW heavy haul

So I've been working the heavy haul division for about 6 months now and thought I'd give a little insight on how things work around here. First off we are mainly Costco dedicated, I'd say about 85-90% of our loads are from them. One thing that is unfortunate about being Costco dedicated is the appointment times. Usually you get delivery times in the early morning between the hours of 0400-0730 and afternoon deliveries between 1700-2100. The stores are an average of around 260mi the shortest store being 121 miles and the longest being 422 miles. We get paid 5cpm extra because we always have short miles. We only run 3 states WA, OR, and ID. Some of the other heavies tell me that the otr drivers hate us, don't know why but it could just be gossip. I tend to just keep to myself and do my thing cause most drivers just like to sit there and complain.


The planners & DM's: They are not the greatest sometimes they give you gravy runs sometimes they give you impossible runs. If you know what stores have what delivery times and if noone is dedicated to that store you can make good money if you directly speak to the planners with what runs they have available. If you just sit there they'll just give you whats leftover which is usually one short run ~150mi then expect you to take a 10 immediately for your next haul. From what I hear from the other drivers the more reliable you are you get the longer runs and usually have a back haul immediately after you leave to deliver and the unreliable ones get the short runs. As far as DM's I've had two 1st one left to become a planner and I got put with another one. The two i've had were awesome when I called never had to tell them my truck number all I ever said was "Hey its Rick" and they knew my truck (I see some people here talk about their dm's not knowing guys by name). And whenever I had a problem were always calm and understanding about it. If there was ever an issue with me not getting paid for some work all I had to do was call them and asked them to fix it and it was done immediately.

The equipment: The tractors are mostly Cascadia's with a few Columbia's mixed in there as well. Theres two versions of the Cascadia, the "Mini-Me" and the full size tractors. The mini me is a single sleeper with the bed right up against the seats in the cab and 1 shelf thats about 1.5x1.5x1.5 and some under the bed storage. Thats it, no cabinets but the front of the truck is just like the otr trucks. The full size Cascadia is just like the OTR ones just with a drop axle. All the OTR heavy haul trucks are equipped with a 13 speed transmission and like a mentioned a steering drop axle. The weight allowed on the axles are as follows... Steers: 12,900 Drop Axle:10,000 Drop & Drives combined:43,500 Drives:34,000. For the trailers there's two different types 4 axle dry van and 3 axle reefer. The four axle dry vans then axles do not slide back and forth they are fixed, it is a 3 axle trailer with a 4th tag axle. Weights for this trailer is as follows 3 axles:43,500 Tag axle:10,000 All four:51,500. The max weight in the box for these trailers is about 62,000. Now all that's left is the 3 axle reefers. On these trailers the axles do slide back and forth, but most guys don't bother with that and just leave the axles all the way back. The weight is a bit different on these because of the axle spacing 42,500. The max weight in these is about 53,000. So CGVWR (I think that the right term) is 105,500.

To sum it up, for me personally... I don't really like this division but that's just me. I know how to work the system and get as many miles as I can, BUT you will almost NEVER get a full straight 8 of sleep if you want to make more than 2500 miles for the week. But on there other hand if you live near one of the Costco's you could be home every few days and have weekends off. And most of the costco's don't mind if you take a 10 in their lot. I've only spent the night 4 times in a truck stop. I have never worked OTR so I know almost nothing on how most of you guys work, all I've ever been was heavy haul since day one. Starting monday i'm going to be slip seating, and if it turns out I don't like that either i'm going wal-mart haha. Well if you got any questions ask away i'll be more than happy to answer questions for ya.

 

Ops I guess I did a bad job of the title.

 

The rear most axle on the 4axles are steerable. Maybe that's what you saw.